


I'm going where the cold wind blows (in the pines, in the pines, where the sun don't ever shine)

by girlsarewolves



Series: exchanges [41]
Category: Slender Man (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Serial Killers, Blood and Violence, Brief Reference to Mild Dub-Con Due to Intoxication, Character Death, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, F/F, Femslash, Human Sacrifice, Mild Death Cult Elements, Multi, Murder, OT4, Rituals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:01:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26496049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlsarewolves/pseuds/girlsarewolves
Summary: It started when they were fifteen. Bored and restless and hungry for more than their small, dying town could offer them. There was something in them that was greedy and wanting. For what, they weren’t sure.Sex. Money. Love. Out.More.
Relationships: Chloe/Wren/Katie Jensen/Hallie Knudsen (Slender Man), Katie Jensen/Hallie Knudsen (Slender Man)
Series: exchanges [41]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1269893
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3
Collections: Darkest Night 2020





	I'm going where the cold wind blows (in the pines, in the pines, where the sun don't ever shine)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheYearOfTheWolf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheYearOfTheWolf/gifts).



> So, I was already working on this idea when I remembered that stabbing incident several years ago. I want to be clear that had no influence on this story. I debated for a bit on whether to finish it or try to think of something else, but with the due date looming and work stress, I was worried I'd only default. Since you included the serial killers au freeform in your tags, I figured you'd be okay with this. Hope you enjoy!

* * *

“Are you ready for tonight?”

Hallie smiles at her reflection. “Oh yeah.” Her eyes dart to meet Katie’s gaze in the mirror, and she winks. “Tom’s not going to know what hit him.”

Katie smiles back and lets herself flop backwards onto Hallie’s bed, hair and limbs splayed out. “Good.” In the mirror, Hallie can watch as Katie moves a hand to lay over her stomach, idly rubbing as if to soothe herself. “I wonder what it will be like.”

“Glorious,” Hallie replies without hesitation. She’s dreamed, fantasized, and planned for this moment for months. 

They all have.

Their gazes lock in the mirror again, and both girls grin at each other. If Hallie wasn’t almost ready, and her date with Tom so close, they’d make good use of her bed one more time. Just to try and help settle the nerves they’re both feeling flutter wildly in their bellies. Or maybe because they aren’t sure what exactly will happen tonight, and wish they could steal one last secret moment together, hushed moans and heavy breathing and greedy, curious fingers and tongues.

“I better go meet up with Wren and Chloe. Make sure everything is ready.” Katie reluctantly sits up and then rises fully from the bed. She makes a detour to Hallie, settled in front of her dresser, and drapes her arms over her shoulders. “Are you really sure about this? It’s different when it’s your person.”

Hallie nods. Her reflection smiles reassuringly back at Katie. “I know. But we’ve practiced, and when we finally were ready to start, you went first. I’m not going to back out now. Not after all you and Wren and Chloe have sacrificed.”

“Good.” Katie kisses her temple and moves away, heading for the door. “I’m glad you picked Tom. Lizzy...it’d be too much.”

The mention of her sister drains some of the anticipation and excitement and hope from Hallie, leaving her somber faced and pale at the thought. A fear creeps in, as though it was waiting for the right moment to slither up her spine. “Do you...do you think Tom will be enough?”

Katie’s reflection looks back over her shoulder and smiles. “Of course. I didn’t love my dad anymore. Just a memory. It isn’t just about what we love that we’re sacrificing, Hallie. It’s about our past. Our present. Our future. Tom is all possibility and fun and maybe more. And you’re going to give that to him. He will know that. And he will reward.”

Hallie swallows, her throat thick and dry, but Katie’s words soothe her, shushing away the fear for now.

Of all of them, Katie is the closest. She would know if it was enough or not.

“I’ll see you soon.”

\---

It started when they were fifteen. Bored and restless and hungry for more than their small, dying town could offer them. There was something in them that was greedy and wanting. For what, they weren’t sure. 

Sex. Money. Love. Out. 

More.

They stumbled drunkenly into a foursome one night, curious and desperate. When they were finally spent and starting to sober, they turned to the internet for a distraction from reconciling with what they’d just done.

That was how they found him.

Wren of course had heard of him. Wren had heard of so many dark and weird and twisted things, though she’d insisted that Slender Man was much more mainstream than her usual catalog of oddities the other girls weren’t aware of. 

When Chloe admitted she knew about him too, Hallie and Katie were even more intrigued.

So the four of them went searching. And they found him. They found so much about him. They devoured everything they could. The videos. The personal accounts. The rabbit hole of missing people. The promises of all he could offer.

Hauntings. Madness. Power. Escape.

They watched the summoning, and then passed out laughing, still drunk enough to pretend they weren’t confused about themselves or that they’d been affected by what they’d seen. What they had each felt.

All of them dreamt though. Horrifying visions, whispers they couldn’t understand, and a strange sense of belonging that kept them from calling the dreams nightmares in the morning.

They knew what to do.

\---

It started with strangers. People they didn’t know, didn’t care about, didn’t have attachments to. All men, all older. They were trying to justify it then, to make it easier.

Lure a creeper out to the woods with the promise of sex. Slit his throat instead. Watch him bleed out onto the dried leaves and soft dirt of the forest floor.

They should have been disturbed. Horrified at themselves. All they felt was fascination. Wonder. Delicious, delirious satisfaction. 

When they went back to Katie’s house after the first, they fucked again in her basement. This time they were sober. It became part of the routine. The _ritual._ Kill a creep, dispose of the body, go home and fuck.

That yearning inside the girls would ease for a little while after each night. They had finally found a way to fill it.

And it was all for him.

After two years of practicing on creeps, spacing it out and learning the best ways to cover their tracks, they were ready to begin. They were ready to sacrifice. They were ready for him to come.

\---

“Um, are you really sure it’s safe out here this late?”

Hallie laughs and glances over her shoulder at Tom, the nervous look on his face visible even in the faint light of the full moon through the barren branches overhead. “Come on, where’s your sense of adventure?” She turns around fully, walking backwards as her hands reach out for his.

Tom seems grateful for the offer. His hands are trembling a little when they grab hers. “It just seems a little...odd?”

With a gentle tug, Hallie has him close. She takes one more step back and feels the comfort of a sturdy trunk behind her. 

Like waiting arms, gathering her in for an embrace.

“I think it’s romantic,” she whispers. Smiles up at Tom with lidded eyes and places his hands on her waist. “Kissing underneath the moonlight. Nobody around for miles. No distractions.” Her soft words carry more and more implications as she lets her voice grow husky with want.

And she does want. Part of her does want Tom. More of her wants what’s coming.

“I guess so,” Tom whispers back. His own wanting has slipped back into his voice, some of the nerves tempered by lust. He moves in even closer, so that their bodies are flush, and Hallie is flush to the tree.

A sensation she cannot describe or comprehend floods her momentarily, and she moans.

Tom takes that for an invitation and kisses her. It’s odd. Wet. Interesting. Different from Katie and Wren and Chloe, but not unpleasant. His hands are sliding up towards her chest when he’s pulled away from her. 

The startled sound he makes causes a brief churning of hesitation and doubt in Hallie’s gut. But when she reaches back and touches the tree, that sensation floods through her again, and resolve chases those feelings away.

“What the fuck?” Tom asks - accuses - as Katie and Chloe pull him and force him onto his knees in front of Hallie. “What’s going on?” He’s strong. He should be able to break free. 

Just like Katie’s dad should have been. Just like the boy Chloe liked, or the librarian who was always kind to Wren. They all should have been able to struggle more.

The sweetest part of the ritual is his strength, his power flowing through them for just a few, short minutes. They know it’s his acceptance of their sacrifice, of the gift they’ve brought him. His acceptance and his pleasure. His approval.

It’s intoxicating.

Wren walks up to Hallie’s right and holds out the knife. “Do it. The final key for the door.”

Hallie nods, calmly takes the knife and returns Wren’s ecstatic smile. Her’s is the last sacrifice. The ritual is almost complete.

Tom is freaking, begging, starting to cry. He stares up at her in confusion, fear, desperation. His mouth is moving and sound comes out, but it sounds garbled and unintelligible to Hallie’s ears.

She circles him, empty fingers combing through the soft waves of his hair and then grip and yank his head back. She looks at those beautiful eyes, wide and wet, and then looks at the tree. “For you,” she whispers and presses the knife to Tom’s neck. There is a brief pause, resolve almost wavering, and then she drags the blade across.

Blood spurts and flows. Splashes on the bark of the trunk, splatters all over the forest bed.

Chloe and Katie drop the body. Wren is almost cackling, practically mad with excitement.

Hallie feels nothing for a moment. It is both a horrifying numbness and a blissful peace. And then horror and rapture well up in her, and she almost vomits, she’s so overwhelmed. Katie is beside her, holding her, soothing her.

The woods go silent. Even when Chloe and Wren are moving to her to offer comfort as well, there’s no sound of leaves crunching under their feet. Even the soft breeze has died, the night as quiet as the grave. Muted. It’s all muted.

The tree creaks.

* * *


End file.
